Thank you! We need a pic for the gallery, don't we?

Jaba, good job fitting those half-square triangles around the center. Perfect fit!

Group 1 Reminder
 

This is a reminder for Group 1 members, that our mailing deadline is Wed. the 15th, 3 days away! If you haven't yet mailed your completed first round quilt, please be sure to do so by Wed. Don't forget to tell your partner it's coming and send her the tracking # by pm. Thanks!

Checking in before I start sewing today. Just wanted to say that I'm fascinated by all these things we are doing, both in the group and otherwise. Checking in here and then playing with my fabrics, pulling things I hope to use, looking at potential ideas, it's all helping me greatly. I was in pretty bad shape there for awhile, but the "out of control downward spiral" has been stopped and I'm working my way back up -- things are actually pretty ok. I'm thinking I won't have anything to show for a week or two, but I'll still be checking in daily.

Tomorrow is my Tuesday group, the six of us are meeting outside again. Everyone is looking forward to seeing the current round. My goal will be to have my sub-units made by next week, and then put on the week after that -- but sometimes I get motivated and other times I get delayed.

I also have the Frolic UFO to work on. Spent some time going through the box and found where the confusion came in... it's actually quite understandable but I don't think I could have figured it out long distance. All in all, not bad at all. I just have to make a few more HST from the fabrics provided and then it will be ready for assembly.

I received Reba's center from Iceblossom. It is beautiful. I am not sure what I am going to do but I will look at it for a day or two until inspiration comes to me.

maryb, I sent you a pm. Did you see it?

Yes, I got it.

This is a picture of the center I received from iceblossom. It is beautiful!

Oh that is beautiful! Love those soft colors. Can't wait to get one to work on!

So everyone's center should have at least one round added by now... is that right?

Hope you all are having fun!

LeeAnn, just to let you know, your package arrived safely. Mary, I have your center. I'll take a picture of it for you. Just home from work, and will eat dinner first.

I'm back to post our pictures! For Mary's center that LeeAnn sewed, LeeAnn has added some lovely applique work, like her own appliqued center, which is skillfully done. She has also extended the outer black squares in a very clever way and added slim black shapes in the corners that seem like exclamation points to me. :-) There is a shadow from my camera cord on the lower right hand corner. I need to charge my camera battery, so maybe I'll take a different picture later.

I had LeeAnn's center to add a round to-- I went scrappy with my round and added more shades of blue, some purple, and a bit of pink, and of course the little light brown birds I showed you before in my sneak peak.

Better picture Maryb. Some of the shimmer is showing up. Very pretty.

I'm glad it arrived earlier this time. Thanks for posting a picture for me.

Givio! I love the round you put on LeeAnn's center. You are such an artist! It's delightful. And how am I ever going to follow that?

LeeAnn, the work you did on Mary's is wonderful, too. Those shapes are all applique? Wow. In the thumbnail pic, it looks like 4 aeroplanes now. Very cute!

Both of you ladies have done some thoughtful, beautiful work. Kudos!

LeeAnn, I love it!!!! Thank you so much!!!

Givio, Beautiful work on LeeAnn center!!!

Wow, both of those are gorgeous. I have the fabric picked out for my next round but still trying to figure out the right pattern.
the border has to be 3 inches or 6 inches correct?

A total that is divisible by 2 or 3 is easiest to add to?
I think we decided that the round has to be 6" or less. But I would say that if a previous row is less than 6" and you want to add a little more than 6", or vice versa, then that would be okay too.

I took my current round to my Tuesday group yesterday. That's Sewbiz's houses in the center plus Reba's round. All the ladies were so excited and thrilled. They responded well to what I'm going to be doing even though it is definitely a change... Everyone agrees that this center has pop and zing and personality and that mine doesn't. Even though that's what I'm going for, something that doesn't look like "me", sometimes humble is harder to deal with. My first concept definitely had more zip but it was also too big.

My first thoughts which I've shared with Sewbizgal, is that to me it looks like Jessica Rabbit (a personal hero! "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way") goes to San Francisco Tool Town. Just a wonderful vibrant graphic world of colors and shapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Rabbit

One of the ladies was telling stories about some of the round robins she's participated in. Including one where the one person put on the exact same border (same fabrics even) onto each round on each quilt... that is definitely a design solution! In the group discussion it was generally agreed that the inspiration part was the hard part.

All I can say, is so far, that inspiration has been easy for me with what you all are providing. For me and this round, I think it currently finishes at 25" wide and I'm not sure if I'm going to be working with the 5" border or add in to 6" or not. First I need to make my subunits and do some layout. I'm already finding that some of the fabrics I pulled in advance are not working as well as I had thought. That's ok... plenty of choices still ahead of me :)

Group 1 Mail Date
 

Good morning everyone! It's the 15th, so that means Mail Day for group 1. I think everyone is accounted for, but I wasn't sure, so here's your reminder if you haven't already mailed your tops.

All tops should have 2 rounds on them (centers plus one)... on their way to their third round maker. If somehow you are ahead of that, please slow down.

Love the pictures we've been seeing lately. Nice work, everyone!

That was a typo before, Toon not Tool... Get a very different image (complete with grunts) for Tool Town/Time. I just get this image of Jessica getting off the Trolley and walking towards those San Francisco row houses, little birds circling around her, cartoon people popping out of windows and doors and saying hello and stuff :) Very happy, very graphic.

As I mentioned before, I'm expecting at least two weeks of puttering around and that I won't be mailing out any time sooner than that and can easily wait until the next mail out day, I'm just making sure that I don't drop the ball again. In things I've learned is that "everything always takes longer than you expect". So if I plan this to where I can easily do it in two weeks, I can be guaranteed to make 3 weeks and so can make a 4 week timeline with no sweat (and only minimal swearing) :p

I wanted to tell y'all about a book I discovered I had... It's called Pieced Borders, The Complete Resource, by Judy Martin and Marsha McCloskey, (1994). It is an amazing resource for borders and round robins! I highly recommend it! It's a wonderful and exhaustive resource for pieced borders, like we are making for our RRs. The book has some beautiful scrappy quilt patterns, as well. I'm inspired.

I got an idea for LeeAnn's quilt... but I'll see what I think when I have the quilt in hand.

Oh my goodness givio, I love what you did! I think it looks great! And thanks for the compliments on Mary's round. Yes, it is applique. It was a challenge but I was pleased with how it turned out.

LeeAnn, I'm glad you like it. :-) I couldn't bear not to use the bird fabric I had, since the shape of the bird was like the shape of the bird you appliqued in your center. The colors of my bird fabric were all different than your center colors, and that's how I decided to make my round for you a scrappy round.

LeeAnn and Givo, wonderful job. I love the negative space LeeAnn created making the overall look more complicated. And Givo, you took so many patterns and made them completely compliment the center.

It is so nice seeing all the stages in one place.

Sewbizgirl, that reminds me that I have book about pieced borders too (don't know if it's the same one) I'll have to dig it out and look. I was looking on Equilter's free patterns, as they have a lot of designs for panels that have interesting borders.

I'm planning on getting Bugaroo's center finished up this weekend. I've found a bee design I like but need to download it. This is a good motivator, I've not done any embroidery since I packed up the machine back in December. I put in so much time making masks this summer (450 so far) that the only thing I've done with the embroidery machine was hem up two pair of pants, since I needed a swing needle machine for that.

I plan on finish tiling the bathtub area tonight (only have about 5sq feet to finish) and then I'll be able to grout Saturday, and we can install the shower door Sunday. Won't be able to use it for a week, but it's going to feel real good to put the tiling tools away.

Among the books I pulled just in case is Janet Kime's Border Book.
https://www.amazon.com/Border-Workbo.../dp/156477693X

I'm finding as I'm actually working with the fabrics this that a lot of what I pulled isn't working so well. That's ok, plenty more fabric that is working where that came from. I'm going to select about 5 more pieces today and then call it good, or at least good enough until I get closer to layout and then maybe I'll have to make a few more adjustments.

After that and then I'm going to make a few more masks and use up the bias binding I made and then I'm putting away the mask stuff for now. Mask making is still not my happy place, even if these are pretty fun fabrics.

Extra Fabric in Packages
 

I need to share a word about extra fabric in the packages... There is no need to ship additional fabric, your leftovers, or any fabric with the tops. This adds a lot of weight and expense to each package, and most people don't want it anyway. They want to use their own fabric choices. So... I am going to say there is no obligation to ship the fabric you may receive with a quilt top. You should be able to ship the cheapest priority way, flat rate bubble mailer, and only the quilt tops will fit in those. I know the extra fabric is a very well meaning gesture, but it's impractical. No one should have to pay $15-$21 to ship a box, when they will have to ship 6 times. So please resist the urge to send along any fabric with the top.

Sorry if this steps on any toes!

Macybaby, your bathroom is going to be great with new tile. Lucky you can do that yourself.

There seems to be loads of great borders books out there. No shortage of inspiration!

MonaG, I have fabric picked out for your second border. I looks kind of plain but no worries... I have a plan! Hope to start working on it this weekend but the garden is calling my name!

Those fabrics look interesting, Bug. Love the gray 'string of pearls' fabric!

Bugaroo, Excellent choice of fabrics! Your round will be a good contrast to what has been made.
Ice, I looked at your link, and wow, I got lost in all the border books. There are so many ideas out there!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do next. I have ideas but the border might be a bit wider than 6 inches. Would that be ok?

Sure... if the next person wants to they can make theirs a tad narrower than 6".

When I look at the borders in my book, it's really hard to find one you like that is exactly 6". So I'm ok with just getting it in the ballpark.

I messed up... and caused some upset over the fabric in packages. Can we agree for our rounds going forward, *not* to add any *more* fabric to the packages?

Yes, I agree about not sending more fabric along. Postage will be a little more each time we ship due to the growing quilt size. I appreciate the time, thought and creativity that goes into each new border. You ladies are talented!

I figure with the center owner sending extra fabric is fine, as that is never going to be more than the finished top, and it will get used up along the way. But I totally agree with the round participants not sending on additional extra fabric unless they mean it as a gift to the next person in line, to use or keep as they want.

I got carriem's center yesterday and have it pressed and hanging on my design wall so I can start thinking about it.

Carrie - since your center is not square, what size are you hoping to end up with? I've got one potential idea but it would turn everything more square so I don't want to do that if you are looking for a rectangular quilt at the end. Saw the note about adding rows (round 5) but didn't know if you meant to turn it more square or if you were hoping for an even longer quilt.

I did include some bits and pieces because I started my project from those bits and pieces, but I don't expect anyone to actually use them! And if someone wants to go ahead and send them back at any point, I'm willing to send a pre-paid envelope. Can always send them back out if someone wants them.

I've been in different groups who did things different ways, happy to do it however makes everyone feel the most comfortable. I should say that I have been collecting some little things that I will be sending as a Seattle Care Package to each person in the group at some point, cost is minimal (less than a Hallmark card and postage will be more than contents), but will include a piece of Seattle area chocolate as well as essentials like hand wipes. No one should feel obligated in any way, it's just a silly little thinking of you sort of thing that doesn't involve me hand writing :p

Last night's book was non-fiction about writing, called Meander, Spiral, Explode it was talking about non-linear story development. Usually we go step by step, this happened first and then this next and so forth. Thinking about that I was comparing the round robin experience where the quilt has it's own story that goes back and forth and around, travels and experiences things to my usual projects.

"I figure with the center owner sending extra fabric is fine, as that is never going to be more than the finished top, and it will get used up along the way. But I totally agree with the round participants not sending on additional extra fabric unless they mean it as a gift to the next person in line, to use or keep as they want".

I totally agree with this. You can fit a lot of fabric in those flat rate bags and a little extra is not going to make a difference. It will get used along the way and if not there will still be room. An example is the Boom blocks, 19 - 12 1/2" blocks, all in zip lock bags ,they all fit just fine. 1 bag, 1 price.

My package currently has six yard or more of extra fabric riding with it, that I did not put in the package. I wasn't talking about "a little extra". If you all want to pay for a box in order to ship excess fabric like this around, that's fine. I can't afford to ship more than the padded flat rate envelope. So something has to come out!

(emphasis mine)

I agree with this too. This would keep the contents and cost of the package down.

We aren't mailing to the next person in line tho... we are mailing to the same person each time. So they would have to mail any 'gifts' on to the others. Again, burdensome. My feelings are that gifts are for a secret pal swap, not this swap. Your well thought and well made round is your gift.

Sorry sewbizgirl, didn't know you meant 6 yards. I was thinking a fat quarter or 2 if the fabric is hard to match or the owner really wanted more of her focus fabric in another round. That's what I get for thinking and not asking, I apologize....